New Hampshire is considerably more fiscally conservative than its neighbors in New England and has a strong disdain for taxes, giving the Republicans an edge in the state.

However, like the rest of New England, it is considerably more liberal on social issues like abortion and gay rights, which helps the Democrats.

The 2008 result made Barack Obama the first Democratic presidential nominee to sweep all ten of New Hampshire's counties since native son Franklin Pierce in 1852.

A state law that was passed in 1975 required that the date be set at least one week before any other similar contest.

[1] Hillary Clinton was the winner of the popular vote in the primary, with Barack Obama trailing in second.

Clinton's win was the first time a woman had ever won a major American party's presidential primary for the purposes of delegate selection.

[3][4]) However, Clinton and Obama received an equal number of delegates to the National Convention since the percentages of their votes were close.

Barack Obama hoped that he would win these primaries the same way he defeated Hillary Clinton at the Iowa caucuses.

In the following table, the candidates' support on January 4 is compared with the results of the USA Today/Gallup poll from mid-December 2007 in New Hampshire.

These statistics are important because in 2004, the New Hampshire independents leaned towards the Democratic side in favor of then-candidate John Kerry.

However, the people of New Hampshire are divided into several smaller regions, so the entire state as a whole wouldn't have been expected to act in a uniform manner.

[11] On November 30, 2007, a man identified as 47-year-old Leeland Eisenberg,[13] armed with road flares strapped to his chest which he claimed were a bomb, entered a Clinton presidential campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire.

[14] He took hostage the 5 people in it, and asked for Clinton, believing she could assist him in gaining psychiatric help.

[17] That evening, she flew to Rochester in order to meet with and comfort the hostages,[18] praise the law enforcement officials who handled the situation,[18] and vow not to change her campaign style due to the incident.

[23] A turnout of nearly 288,000 people was even higher than expected, and was greater than the number of New Hampshire residents who voted for Al Gore in 2000.

He made this decision as he returned to his home state, New Mexico, on January 9, 2008, to meet with his top advisors.

[25] The New Hampshire Republican primary also took place on January 8, 2008, with 12 national delegates being allocated proportionally to the popular vote.

Average support from polls were McCain, 31.8%; Romney, 28.2%; Huckabee, 12.2%; Giuliani, 9.3%; Paul, 8.2%; Thompson, 2.2%.

Most New Hampshire voters cast their votes on Diebold optical-scan systems, which read paper ballots.

[33] The recount began on January 16, 2008, after New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner received $27,000 from Kucinich.

Here are their last predictions before election day: Pre-election polling showed a tight race early on.

Moreover, the New Hampshire Republican Party is considerably more moderate and libertarian-leaning especially on social issues, making the behavior of the state difficult to predict.

Republicans had remained fairly competitive at the state level until November 2006 when Democratic Governor John Lynch was reelected to a second term with 74% of the vote.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain had early hopes for winning the state.

After he clinched the GOP nomination in March 2008, McCain began to move more to the right to appease the base of his party, and his selection of the socially conservative Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin to be the vice presidential nominee alienated several independents and libertarian-leaning Republicans in New Hampshire.

Despite the polls that had Obama leading by double digits, New Hampshire voters gave a surprise comeback win to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the January 2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary thanks in large part to an enormous number of women who turned out to support Clinton after her emotional moment at a campaign stop in Portsmouth a few days earlier.

Obama acknowledged this phenomenon throughout the campaign when he advised his supporters not to get so cocky and arrogant when they saw the polls that had him leading.

By early October, Obama had gained a double-digit lead in the state and never looked back.

[56] Obama successfully carried New Hampshire with 54.13% of the total statewide vote while McCain received 44.52%.

At the same time, popular incumbent Democratic Governor Lynch was reelected to a third term in a landslide over Republican Joe Keeney and Libertarian Susan Newell.